Exchange Report

Exchange report - incoming students

Home university:

Université Joseph Fourier (Université Grenoble Alpes)

Study programme:

Medicine

Exchange programme:

Erasmus

Semester:

Spring semester 2013/2014

Name:	Jeanne OUVRIER-NEYRET
Email address:	Jeanne.Ouvrier-Neyret@e.ujf-grenoble.fr

Arrival and registration

When I arrived, I was very glad to beneficiate of the pick-up service organized by KI because it permitted me to be guided directly to my accommodation and not to have to go to KI to get the keys.
According to me, the introduction day was very well planned and it was an essential step of the stay to discover Swedish culture, KI Solna Campus and students' life and to meet other exchange students. I also appreciated the debate about the cultural differences and the evening organized by Global Friends.

The contact with the student health centre was short but sufficient. I had a day to go there to do the MRSA screening.

Acommendation

I applied for housing through the University Accommodation Center (UAC) 8 months before to arrive at KI. It was easy and I was allowed to have the accommodation that I wanted. I lived in Pax which is located near the city center and Solna Campus. I was very satisfied of the standard of the housing: it was clean, I had my private bathroom... I thought that the cost was nice for a city like Stockholm (116 sek daily).

However, I wanted to say that sometimes it's more difficult to be integrated in some floors where there are very few exchange students.

Leisure time and social activities

I participated in some events organized by Global friends: party after the introduction day, dinner, visit of the Vasa museum, visit of Skansen... According for me, there were a lot of free events organized for exchange students, what is very good, and the access to information about these activities was easy thanks to e-mail and facebook group. I also participated in Color day and dance lessons. It was a very nice way to meet others students. I regretted that I haven't made any Swedish friends in the university because we weren't in the same clinical rotations than them. But I made two Swedish friends in my corridor.

Galveston

Pre-departure

I chose to go on exchange for several reasons. First, it was a way to discover an other country with an other culture and meet a lot of people. Second, it allowed me to discover a different health care system and see how hospitals work in an other country. Third, it was a manner to improve my English. Last but not least, go abroad permitted me to break the routine of medical studies.
I chose Ki because of the quality of the instruction, the possibility of English education and the location in Stockholm.
I thought that the exchange information and the study abroad information are very well given by KI after the acceptation of the application and it was easy to get information about exchange at KI on KI website.
Everything was planed by KI before my arrival like the planning of the introduction day, the day and the horary for the MRSA screening...

I was required to have the MRSA test in Sweden before to go at the hospital (results of French test weren't accepted).

Courses during the exchange period

ELA005 : Internal Medicine 1

According to me, this clinical rotation was good. I was authorized to choose in which ward I was. I was in gastroenterology and nephrology to be in coordination with my French programme. I was very pleased with the supervision of the course like usual. I really appreciate the bedside education in gastroenterology and the renal consult (when things happened). I thought however that it would be interesting to attend to renal planned consultations. I think that it would be good also to have some theoretical courses to help the comprehension when you haven't done this clinical rotation in your home country before.

ELAX20 : Inflammatory Diseases

It was a very interesting course with a balance between theoretical and clinical courses. The quality of this course was really good and it was a good way to discover all the aspects of the inflammatory diseases thanks to the lectures in every specialities involved. The lectures were adapted to our degree. The supervision of the course was perfect. I like especially the mix of disciplines, the testimony of one of the patient, the learning of the articular puncture and the presentation with the physiotherapists and the occupational therapists. I think that to be sometimes in an other outpatient clinic than rheumatologic one would be great and that a whole day in the in-ward would be better than 2 half day in this ward.

ELAX16 : Obstetrics and Gynaecology

I really like this course because it was various and I love this speciality. I spent 3 weeks in obstetrics and 3 weeks in gynaecology. I really appreciated that the course began with a week of introduction lectures because it helped me to discover this medical field. It was perfectly relevant to my degree but some of the others students were more experimented than me because they have already done this course in their country. The teaching and supervision were good. I appreciated the seminars all the Wednesday because it's good for learning to work on clinical cases and It was great to can compare the management of the diseases in different countries. I think that it was good also to rotate between all the wards of obstetrics and gynaecology and that permitted me to learn a lot of things.

LÄK002 : Hand surgery

This course was also very nice. I was well introduced to the medical team. The supervision of the course was excellent with a detailed schedule. I was half time in the operation theatre and half time in the outpatient clinic. I can attend to the lectures for the residents. However I think that the level of the lectures was too high in comparison to my knowledge and that this field is very specialized. I loved assisting the surgeon in the operating room even if I wasn't allowed to do a lot. I think that maybe it could be good to stay most of the time in the operation theatre and also to do the radiologic meeting every morning in English when there are foreigner students.

Summary

I really like my exchange period at KI. Everything was perfectly organized for us. I met a lot of foreign people and discovered a new culture. Most of people at the hospital were hearty, really nice with me and learned me a lot of things. I am happy to have done this exchange at KI. The only thing that I wish had been arranged differently is to be more integrated with Swedish students in lectures and in the ward at the hospital.

Language and Culture

I participated at the Swedish language course taught by Studiefrämjandet. I thought it was interesting to do some sketch about daily life but I regretted not to learn more grammar. I wasn't able to speak basic Swedish at the end of the course.

Studies in general

I think that the Swedish study environment is very calm and well organized. I have done 4 clinical rotations in different hospitals of Stockholm and I noticed that the relationship between student and supervisor was without a lot of hierarchy and that most of the doctors were very happy to have exchange students in their ward and to teach me as much things as they could. However, I haven't experienced a real relationship with patients because of the language barrier except for some of them.
I regretted not to have more theoretic lectures because sometimes it was difficult to take the maximum of benefits of the clinical education with a lack of theory (even though I tried to learn with books).

The differences between my home university and KI were the organization between theory and clinical education (there is more theory in my home university and we go at the hospital only the morning), the relationship between student and supervisor that is very hierarchic in France and the responsibility for the students (at least exchange students) towards patients (In France we can examine alone the patient and practise some technical acts like ascites puncture) and the presence of a clinical training center in KI.

The similarities are that the studies are a mix between theory and clinical education.

I learned a lot of things concerning both medical knowledge and relationship with patient that is a little more in the middle of the management in Sweden.